Anatidae雁鴨科yàn-yā kē

鴨科yā kē

ガンカモ科gan-kamo ka

오리과ori-gwa

Họ Vịt

General

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These familiar birds are normally divided into ducks, geese, and swans.

The swans are known as 天鵝tiān-é, meaning 'sky goose' or 'heaven goose'. They are called 鵠hú in the written language, a word with an ancient lineage until recently still used in the scientific names in Taiwan.

Geese in the wild are known as 雁yàn. The Swan goose, 鴻hóng or 鴻雁hóng-yàn, is the ancestor of the domesticated goose in China (in the West it was the Greylag goose). Domesticated geese are known as 鵝é'goose' or 家鵝jiā-é'domestic goose'.

Ducks in the wild are known as 野鴨yě-yā (colloquially 野鴨子yě yāzi) 'wild duck', or 水鴨shuǐ-yā'water duck'. These names are sometimes applied narrowly to the Mallard or 綠頭鴨lǜ-tóu yā'green-headed duck', which was the wild ancestor of the domestic duck. Wild ducks are known as 鳧fú in written Chinese (applied to the Tadorninae in the Taiwanese names).

Domestic ducks (descended from the Mallard) are known as 鴨子yāzi'duck' or 家鴨jiā-yā'domestic duck'. 騖wù is a more formal word for the domesticated duck.

The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) is known as 鴛鴦yuān-yang, a word that has been borrowed into Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese. In Chinese culture, the Mandarin Duckis conventionally used as a symbol of marital devotion due to its occurrence in mating pairs.

Recent changes in the Taiwanese ornithological names have brought the naming of the Aythya genus closer to the Mainland names (潛鴨qián-yā meaning 'diving duck'). The names of the mergansers (秋沙qiūshā, literally 'autumn-sand', a term which originally appears to have come from Japanese) have also been changed, but not necessarily in the direction of Mainland usage.

Chinese has the expression 癩蛤蟆想吃天鵝肉lài-háma xiǎng chī tiān'é-ròu'A toad wants to eat swan meat', referring to a person lusting after something that he is not worthy of or is out of his class.

(白额鹅)白額鵝bái-é é'white-foreheaded goose'(草鹅)草鵝cǎo-é'grass goose'(大雁)大雁dà-yàn'large wildgoose'(general name, also used for other types of goose)(FS)(花斑)花斑huā-bān'flowery-stripe'(FS)(明斑)明斑míng-bān'bright-stripe'(Honghu, Hubei)(FS)